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"We are involved now in a profound failure of imagination. Most of us cannot imagine the wheat beyond the bread, or the farmer beyond the wheat, or the farm beyond the farmer, or the history beyond the farm.

"Most people cannot imagine the forest and the forest economy that produced their houses and furniture and paper; or the landscapes, the streams, and the weather that fill their pitchers and bathtubs and swimming pools with water. Most people appear to assume that when they have paid their money for these things they have entirely met their obligations."
—Wendell Berry

We’ve lost some of our site images, but here are representative images of our process in creating biochar via pyrolysis–a form of incineration that chemically decomposes organic materials by heat in the absence of oxygen.

The process is attracting the attention of community members, soil scientists, organic gardeners, and environmental engineers, as it has been shown to be both a carbon-negative soil amendment that helps to mitigate climate change and it has the potential to dramatically increase soil fertility. These images represent our process or replicating previous community efforts; although larger-scale initiatives are underway internationally, we focus on what local gardeners and small farmers might attempt here in the Houghton and Keweenaw area.